I’ve been there when it’s been ‘no decision’ and I’ve been on both sides. I think we all have. When I first look back, if I’m the sales guy, my first inclination is did I really do something wrong, or I didn’t really sell the product that I needed to sell. I didn’t point out the right benefits to them or didn’t recognize what was going on. Also, when I take into my Sales Manager, I’m going to say, “Oh, they decided not to make a decision.” My Sales Manager’s going to say, “Well, go back out there then.” Right? How do we handle that within our organizations? – Joe Dager
Bob Apollo: You’re certainly talking a great deal about did we position our product or our solution here wrongly or in an ineffective way? In the case of a decision to do nothing, that’s actually very rarely the problem. The problem there often starts with the salesperson being actually too impatient to present their solution. Failing to invest the time early on in the discussion with the prospect to really determine whether there’s a real appetite for change. Whether that appetite for change already exists or whether that appetite for change could be created by helping the customer to recognize the cost and consequences of sticking with the status quo. That’s got very little, perhaps nothing to do with the specific functionality of your solution or how you’ve chosen to present or solve it. It’s a heck of a lot to do with, was the problem really compelling enough in the first place? And, could I and should I have qualified out if I couldn’t identify early on in my discussion with the prospect that there is truly a compelling case for change.
This is something that I see even pretty smart sales people miss. They’re in such a rush when they hear the prospect talking about an issue that they know their product can solve, that they can’t resist the itch to pitch. When instead, what they could and should be doing and by the way, what I see the top performers doing is invest early on in talking about the problem, not about the solution and about the consequences of the problem and determining whether there really is that appetite for change. That’s, I think, at the heart of a lot of the ‘no decision’ problems. They’re pitching too early.
Joe: But, that certainly relates back to what you said previously then is that we really need to concentrate on the problem.
Bob: There’s no question about it and who else is impacted by the problem and what the consequences of the problem are, not just on the individual that you’re speaking to right now but in their peer group, their colleagues. And actually, I found it a very interesting and valuable indicator. If the person you’re talking to finds it hard to articulate who else is affected, if they find it hard to put themselves in the shoes of their other colleagues who sooner or later will have to approve their decision to change, then you probably haven’t, you’re probably not talking to somebody who’s really capable of mobilizing the rest of their colleagues around the need to change and that’s talking to weak mobilizers or people who aren’t mobilizers, right, they appear to want to talk to you, to have interest, they may even give the appearance of having a certain amount of authority. But, if they’re not capable of taking their colleagues with them in the decision-making process, then they’re unlikely to be able to truly act as your champion, no matter what you might hope.
Joe: What opportunities does a ‘no decision’ then give us? Are there opportunities to be seen when I hear ‘Oh, we’re not going to make a decision’?
Bob: Well, firstly, it tells us that if we thought, by the way, that this was a well-qualified opportunity, that something, somewhere has not gone quite to plan or very simply that circumstances have changed. I think the sort of things we need to understand when it becomes very obvious to us that what we had thought was a well-qualified prospect is unlikely to make a decision now, is we need to dig underneath and try and establish whether they do have the issue, it’s just that they’re not ready to deal with it right now. They haven’t yet been able to establish the internal consensus or some other corporate priority or initiative had moved up the rankings, yeah, in terms of importance.
I think, we have to understand, if we hear or we believe that what we thought was a well-qualified prospect has come to a decision to stick with the status quo, we need to work out whether the underlying issue that we thought existed is still there. If we’re smart, the sort of things we want to do is to nurture, not just our initial contact but the other people that hopefully we’ve been able to introduce ourselves to, to over time help them to acknowledge that actually the impact of that issue is more profound, it’s more damaging if it’s left unresolved than they had previously thought. You can certainly resurrect opportunities which initially end in a decision to stick with the status quo. If you’ve got a truly deep understanding of the issue, its consequences and it actually can help illuminate for members of the buying group, perhaps some consequences they weren’t aware of.
Related Podcast and Transcription: Apollo on Sales
Bob Apollo is the founder and principal consultant behind Inflexion-Point Strategy Partners, one of the UK’s leading B2B sales and marketing performance improvement specialists.
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